Joined: March 11th, 2007, 11:19 amPosts: 2452Location: In the Tardis, off to who knows where in who knows when!

We've had one persistent guy spamming the forums today. I think it's the same guy since all the names have been roughly (or exactly, I didn't pay too much attention to them) the same. It's a bit odd for it to be happening so frequently, usually I just delete them and that's that for a while, but 3 times in one day for over 100 posts is pretty impressive. I don't really like to do it but if it keeps up I'll have to look into an IP ban, since obviously if some guy just keeps signing up and posting there's little way to actually stop him other than an IP ban.

I do have his e-mail banned now, which was specifically unique to an individual site 2010go4 . biz, so hopefully that will keep him at bay. With the general increase in spam posting this past week I am also going to look at installing another security measure so at least the forum can be more secure against spam bots, if nothing else.

Joined: March 11th, 2007, 11:19 amPosts: 2452Location: In the Tardis, off to who knows where in who knows when!

We're still getting hit by a fair number of spam posters, but I am thankful they're just posting once or a few times and not up to 50 like the other guy was.

However, I still haven't gotten the additional spam blocking mod/s installed yet (have a final on Tuesday I am studying for) so once that gets finished I should have the time to get a mod or two installed to cut down on these damn spammers!

We're still getting hit by a fair number of spam posters, but I am thankful they're just posting once or a few times and not up to 50 like the other guy was.

haven't hit aol yet today, so i haven't seen if there's been any since i last logged in or not.

Acmurphy wrote:

However, I still haven't gotten the additional spam blocking mod/s installed yet (have a final on Tuesday I am studying for) so once that gets finished I should have the time to get a mod or two installed to cut down on these damn spammers!

Where can I go to learn how to block these bozos? We were not paying attention to our Crunchy Pixel Studios forum (since we only set it up for internal use, wound up using the phone more anyway and didn't publicize it), but upon further review, it is drowing in spam! If someone could point me in the right direction, I'll get started on long neglected homework.

Joined: March 11th, 2007, 11:19 amPosts: 2452Location: In the Tardis, off to who knows where in who knows when!

42317 wrote:

I thought this strip was fitting... and seeing how it works (the attachment) I guess I like it better than uploading every little thing onto my picture account...

If only they really did turn into spam... Ya, the attachment feature actually works pretty well, I was really surprised more people weren't using it and kept using various picture websites. The only thing I wish I could figure out it how to get it to post the picture without putting it into the attachment box if I didn't want it to show.

PunkDaddy wrote:

Where can I go to learn how to block these bozos? We were not paying attention to our Crunchy Pixel Studios forum (since we only set it up for internal use, wound up using the phone more anyway and didn't publicize it), but upon further review, it is drowing in spam! If someone could point me in the right direction, I'll get started on long neglected homework.

Wow, it really is getting rocked by spam! Um, as of now I don't have anything special installed to make it tougher for them to sign up. You can modify the visual image by lowering the GD CAPTCHA background noise on the x and y-axis in the visual confirmation settings. That could help a bit. I'm also looking at installing this http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1545695 which changes the image to one that isn't recognized by spam bots. There should also be one for a "human question" somewhere, I'll see if I can't find it.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is the huge list of banned spam e-mail addresses that keep a number of them at bay. Well, that and my ever vigilance against them!

Where can I go to learn how to block these bozos? We were not paying attention to our Crunchy Pixel Studios forum (since we only set it up for internal use, wound up using the phone more anyway and didn't publicize it), but upon further review, it is drowing in spam! If someone could point me in the right direction, I'll get started on long neglected homework.

Wow, it really is getting rocked by spam! Um, as of now I don't have anything special installed to make it tougher for them to sign up. You can modify the visual image by lowering the GD CAPTCHA background noise on the x and y-axis in the visual confirmation settings. That could help a bit. I'm also looking at installing this http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=1545695 which changes the image to one that isn't recognized by spam bots. There should also be one for a "human question" somewhere, I'll see if I can't find it.

Other than that the only thing I can think of is the huge list of banned spam e-mail addresses that keep a number of them at bay. Well, that and my ever vigilance against them!

Thanks! We're just going to nuke the existing forum and start over. The cost of a lack of vigilance is quite high.

Joined: March 11th, 2007, 11:19 amPosts: 2452Location: In the Tardis, off to who knows where in who knows when!

So far I have to give it some credit. Usually there are about 20 bots that register each day, though very few of them actually show up because they never seem to authenticate with their e-mail (they must be the stupid bots that aren't advanced enough to do it). After I installed the anti-bot mod there has not been one new bot that has registered over the past 9 hours or so. I'll take that as a good sign.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum